A heart-wrenching video of family members crying in front of the bodies of the victims killed in the deadly stampede at actor-politician Vijay’s rally in Karur has surfaced on social media.
“Visuals from the Government Medical College and Hospital, where the bodies of victims of the Karur stampede incident are being handed over to their family members after the postmortem. As per CM MK Stalin, so far, 39 people have lost their lives in the stampede incident during a public event of TVK (Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam) chief and actor Vijay, yesterday,” ANI tweeted while sharing a scene from outside the hospital.
Also Read: TVK Vijay Rally Stampede Live Updates
What happened at the rally?
A huge crowd gathered at Tamil actor Vijay's election rally, which quickly turned into chaos, causing a stampede. The event was organised as part of Vijay’s ongoing state tour for his political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).
{{/usCountry}}A huge crowd gathered at Tamil actor Vijay's election rally, which quickly turned into chaos, causing a stampede. The event was organised as part of Vijay’s ongoing state tour for his political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).
{{/usCountry}}According to the DGP in charge of Tamil Nadu, G Venkatraman, the actor-politician arrived late for the rally. He reached the venue after 7:30 pm, when the event was scheduled for 3 pm. The police said the organisers selected the venue for 10,000 people, but 27,000 arrived.
“Earlier rallies of TVK had smaller crowds, but this time the turnout was far higher than expected. Though organisers had requested a large ground in Karur, anticipating about 10,000 people, nearly 27,000 gathered,” Venkatraman told ANI.
Also Read: Police say Vijay's late arrival led crowds to swell: What caused Karur stampede?
Reportedly, the venue didn’t have sufficient food and water to accommodate the large gathering. “By the time Vijay arrived at 7:40 pm., the crowd had already been waiting for hours without sufficient food and water. That is the reality,” the official continued.
“Vijay himself appreciated the police for their role but stressed that party cadres must take responsibility for crowd management. It does not mean the police should deploy numbers equal to the entire crowd of 27,000,” the police personnel added.